Not Your Reflection
by Renting Harry
Summary: It's seventh year, the school has reopened without Harry, and someone new in Ron's life is just the first in a series of events that begin the long road to Voldemort's demise.
1. Prologue Petunia's Library

Prologue

Just over 17 Years Ago….

"Excuse me, young miss?"

Petunia Dursley held up her right index finger, to indicate to whoever was about to make an inquiry that she would help them in a moment. Damnit, she thought, she was just getting to the climax of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece "The Fellowship of the Ring."

"Yes Sir, how may I help you?" She looked up over her desk to see a fellow in a black cloak. His face was oddly distorted, like some kind of deformity. His nose, she thought, looked almost like a pig's nose, turned up like. The Man's skin was just slightly tinted, as though it had lost some of it's color over the years, but the man did not look old at all.

The man stared at the desk for a moment and picked up a little plaque which read "Petunia Dursley: Librarian." "I'm assuming this is you," The man licked his lips revealing a tongue that was also noticeably off-color, and teeth that desperately needed braces of some kind.

"Yes, that's me," Petunia responded politely. "Is there something you needed help finding?"

"Well…You…frankly, I'm looking for you," The Man responded.

"Me? Why?" Petunia's face suddenly went hard, all of a sudden it looked like her neck had grown several inches and her lips turned to stone.

"I was just wondering, Madam, if you'd heard from your sister lately?" The Man asked ever so smoothly.

"My Sister? I don't have a sister." She said, she turned to grab something out of a drawer, acting as though this conversation no longer needed any input from her.

"I believe you do Madam." He held out hand to indicate a height, "Yea tall, green eyes, name of Lilly."

Petunia froze. "What do you want with Lilly?" She said turning her head away from the drawer as slowly as she could.

"Well, I just heard the good news!" He said.

"News, what news?"

"About the Baby." At this Petunia stood up, she hadn't even known Lilly was pregnant, some sister she was, now that she was off and about with that idiot boy who…

"AHH!" At that moment a dirty sewer rat crawled out from a hole in the wall. It zigged and zagged around Petunia's feet for just a moment before she kicked it across the room and jumped up onto her desk chair.

"Madam, I'm sorry, I'm in a bit of a hurry, If you could just give me and address for the purpose of congratulations…"

"How did you find me? How did you know we were related? Who are you?" Petunia stared at his dark, cold eyes from on top of her desk chair.

"I told you, I'm in a bit of a hurry, but I suppose if you're not going to be any good to me…" His voice trailed off as he nonchalantly reached for something from under his cloak. The man pulled out what looked like a stick right off a tree branch, "Avada…"

"Excuse me, Sir…" At that precise moment the rat she had flung across the room suddenly shed it's tail and began to grow, faster and faster and…were her eyes tricking her…or was there a short, fat, bald little man standing where the rat had been just seconds ago.

The Man with the odd nose wheeled around quickly to see the squat round man.

"Who are you?! What do you want?! Tell the truth!" The Man said this very fast, and very loudly.

The Bald Man made some kind of squeaking noise and said. "My name is Peter Pettigrew, secret keeper for Lilly and James Potter."

Petunia, still standing on the desk chair saw the man in the cloak lower the wooden stick. He wheeled around one more time, smiling for the first time since he entered the room and said, "Thank you, m'dear, but your services are no longer required."


	2. Of Nifflers and Goblins

Chapter 1

Of Nifflers and Goblins

"Bloody Hell"

Ron Weasley sat in the great hall at breakfast on the morning of October the 14th. He had just been having a very amusing conversation with Ginny, Hermione, Seamus, and Dean when a group of house-elves arrived carrying a large brown parcel.

"Go on, Ron, open in," Seamus said, clearly amused by the situation.

Ron muttered something under his breath, and used his wand to undo the spell-o-tape that was holding the top of the package together.

It was in an instant that something large, black, and furry leapt out of the box and landed on the table.

The effect was immediate. Several girls around the hall screamed, everyone in the general area stood up and backed away quickly from the table, and three or four glasses all spilled their contents on to the floor.

It was a Niffler, one of those creatures they had taken care of a few years ago in Care of Magical Creatures lessons with Hagrid. This one had a particularly long nose, which it was already using to collect the shiniest gold and silver from the table, and placing it nicely in the parcel from whence it came.

"Who in God's name sent you a niffler?" Hermione asked as the Niffler wrapped it's long nose around her plate and dropped it and the food on it back into the package.

"Probably a joke of some kind…" Ron said, noticing a note pinned to the side of the parcel.

"What the Devil is that thing doing in here?" Professor McGonnagal had just entered the hall to find the Niffler waddling back and fourth on the table collecting all the golden water goblets.

"Someone's sent it to me, Professor," Ron said apologetically.

"He didn't know what was inside or he wouldn't have opened it at the table." Ginny added seeing a look on McGonnagal's face that was either very stern, or very amused, she couldn't tell which.

"Hang on, there's a note inside." Ron grabbed the note and unfolded it.

_To Ron,_

_This is a Niffler, if you didn't know. Just in case you've yet to study them in your Care of Magical Creatures lessons, they are excellent at seeking out priceless objects, they're almost like muggle metal detectors except ten times smarter and more useful. It's name is Zercrow, use it well._

"Use it well?" McGonnagal said out loud after reading the note. She studied for a few more seconds as everyone in the hall watched Ron, Hermione, and Ginny try desperately to get a hold of it and put him back in his cage.

"Minerva? What is going on here?"

Ron looked up from his efforts to capture Zercrow, the Niffler to see the other professor McGonnagal enter the hall. Apparently she was married. Most of the staff didn't even know of the existence of Henry McGonnagal, but when Dumbledore was murdered by Snape she called him right away so the rumor went. He was to be their new Transfiguration teacher, as McGonnagal…That is to say Minerva, was promoted to headmistress. All the students were hammered by this piece of juicy news, however both of them refused to discuss it with any of the students.

"There's a Niffler running up and down my hall, did you not notice?" McGonnagal said sardonically.

"Well I see that, how did it get there." She handed him the note. "I recognize that handwriting. OUCH!" It was at that moment that Zercrow the Niffler chose to take a nibble on the buckles keeping Henry McGonnagal's shoes together.

"Excuse me, Loralai?" Professor McGonnagal said to a passing Huffflepuff student, that Ron did not recognize. "Would you take this Niffler down to Professor Hagrid's, tell him to just tie it up in back, and I'll explain later." She conjured up a leash, and handed it to the girl who obeyed.

"So…"Ginny said after a moment. "Who was the note from?"

"Didn't say." Ron answered, shortly, trying to sort out who's goblet was whos.

"Someone just randomly decides to send you a Niffler," Hermione said. "Seems quite fishy to me."

"Strangely I agree." Ron said. "But McGonnagal sent him down to Hagrid's…She couldn't have thought it was too shifty. Could she?"

"I suppose not…" Hermione reached over the stole some of Ginny's bacon as hers had been tossed into the large wooden package.

"Listen, we'll go down after Defense Against the Dark arts and talk to Hagrid, see if he can make anything of it." Ron said. Hermione sat down next to him and he grabbed her hand. "Okay?"

She kissed his cheek.

"I'll take that as a yes…"

"Settle down everyone, settle down!" Bill Weasley stood at the front of the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom. "I know I'm still a new teacher but you must show me the same respect you would show the rest of your teachers. I need you all to hand up your homework and then we can begin."

"Uhm…Bill…" Hermione whispered as he walked past.

"Yes, Hermione," He replied softly, realizing this wasn't supposed to be a class wide discussion.

"Did you hear about Ron's Niffler?" She asked him.

"Yes, I heard the news from Professor McGonnagal…That is…Henry…Just now. Odd thing wasn't it?"

"And the paper this morning?" She asked.

"Anything interesting?"

"The Goblins…They're considering shutting down Gringotts if…"

"SHUTTING DOWN GRINGOTTS?" Bill almost shouted this getting the attention of the entire class…"Er…Sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice…"

"Excuse me, Sir," Seamus Finnigan said from the back. "Didn't you used to work for Gringotts?"

"Yes…er…well I still do…I have no intention of staying past this year, I'm doing this solely as a favor for Professor McGonnagal. What with what happened at the end of last year and all and they were short a transfiguration teacher, and a Defense teacher, not to mention Slughorn's been a right moran about his salary…well…I shouldn't be talking about this now."

"Do you think we should all withdraw our gold?" Seamus said trying to speed his rambling along.

"Withdraw?"

"With the break ins and all?"

"Break-ins, where have I been?" He said sarcastically to himself. Hermione handed him the front page of the morning Prophet. The cover featured several goblins at a press conference with Rufus Scrimgeor, Cornelius Fudge, and the heads of the department of Magical Creatures, and the Goblin Liaison office.

"Nothing was stolen?" Bill asked the class at large.

"No," said Dean. "But they said they knew it was the Death Eaters, there were several eye witnesses!"

"The Death Eaters trying to break into Gringotts?"

Hermione looked over at Ron, they could both tell that Bill was worried. Clearly the order wasn't aware of this particular turn of events.

"Er…I'm sorry, enough about Gringotts, let's get the ball rolling, shall we?" He said beginning to write something on the blackboard for them to copy down.

The weather was brisk as Ron, Hermione, and Ginny made their way down to Hagrid's hut. Now that Ginny was a sixth year, she too had free time with the other NEWT students. They were on their way, of course, to do some investigative work on this niffler. Of all the things for him to be sent, why a niffler? Who would send it? It just didn't make any sense. The way Ron saw it, this could end in one of three ways. In a Few days, he's get a letter from an obscure relative that the niffler was sent by him as part of his will, or, in a few days the niffler would carry some accursed object planted by a death eater up to the school which would proceed to explode the second it left the nifflers jaws, or the third way, that he would never know where it came from or why…Whether it was a mix up or…well no…he supposed it couldn't have been a mix-up, the note was labeled to Ron. And now that he thought about it, he too recognized the handwriting on the note.

Ginny knocked three times on Hagrid's massive door.

"Hold yer 'orses, hold yer 'orses," They heard clinking noises from inside, like Hagrid was getting up from a spot of tea.

The massive chestnut door opened to reveal their biggest friend. "Was wondering when you three'd show up. Blimey it's weird saying that and not referrin' to Harry. Well come in, come in." There was silence for a few moments as they entered the hut. They'd all sort of come to a silent agreement not to talk about Harry's absence. After the wedding, Harry told him that he would not tell them when he was leaving, so they couldn't possibly come with him, at first they had been angry, but Ron understood all along, and knew that they were all very frightened. He had helped them all move Bill and Fleur's things to an apartment in Hogsmeade, above Madam Puddifoot's tea shop, where Fleur now worked, and Bill could come home to after work in the castle. It was only a few days after that Harry had left, not a member of the order had heard from him since.

"I dunno if you've all met Loralai here." The Hufflepuff student that Professor McGonnagal had recruited to escort Zercrow, the Niffler down to Hagrid's was sitting on a couch on the other side of the room.

"Hi, Loralai," Ginny gave a friendly wave to indicate they knew each other, and Ron and Hermione both nodded politely.

"I was jus' talking to Loralai here about it, the Niffler I mean, strange thing that. Not everyday one can get a license to transport creatures like that. You've got to go through the Muggle Prime Minister and everything. I had a load of a time getting that group here a few years ago. They're dead useful though."

"But no idea where it came from? Marks or anything?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"Not a clue. He's in perfect health though." Hagrid smiled, serving them all up a cup of tea. Couldn't find a single thing wrong with 'im. Poppy, Madam Pomphrey came down too just to make dead sure. No idea who sent you this thing Ron, but it'll live a long and healthy life."

After their transfiguration lesson, Hermione and Ron joined Ginny in the great hall once again, still discussing the Niffler incident.

"I think I'll write Mum and Dad. They can tell the order, maybe one of them could have a hint." Ron said. The three of them sat down opposite Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, who were both staring at Tarot Cards.

"We just learned all about them in Divination!" Parvati said. "Come on, one of you let me tell your future!"

When none of them volunteered, Lavender gave Ron a look that Clearly said "You owe me," and he allowed her to tell his fortune.

Hermione watched lazily, just staring at her boyfriends face. The freckles, the slightly off nose, his bangs slid slowly down his forehead…God…What had taken the two of them so long. She loved the boy…no…man sitting next to her with all her heart. Ron was staring quite amusedly at Parvati who was now deep in conversation with Lavender about the subtext of one particular card when suddenly Parvati turned quickly toward Ron. Her eyes glazed over and rolled back into her head.

"Parvati? Parvati!" Lavender stood up. "Somebody get Madam Pomphrey!"

Madam Pomphrey saw from the staff table and came running, accompanied by half the staff.

"Zercrow?" Parvati said. Her voice was much deeper then usual, it was harsh and shrill. "Horcrux."

Ron knew this. This was the expression Harry had described when Professor Trelawny gave a real prediction.

"Zercrow." She said again. The name of the niffler?

"What about Zercrow?"

"Horcrux." Parvati said again.

"What's a Horcrux? What's a Zercrow?" Lavender said, panicking. "She's going mad!"

"Wait, my child!" Professor Trelawny pushed her way through the crowds and grabbed Parvati's hands.

"Professor? What's happened? Why has everyone gathered around…me…" and Parvati's voice trailed away as she fell to the floor, unconscious.

**Author's Note: Hey All, I hoped you've all liked the first two bits of "Not your Reflection" If you haven't noticed, this story is being told from Ron's point of view, and I'm trying very hard to still make it sound Rowling-Esque. I definitely have some big plans for this story, and essentially this chapter was setting the scene for most of the upcoming Chapters. Completely shameless plug: Please review this story. If you don't review it I can't know if you're reading it, and may get board of this after a while, but if I know that people are reading it I will continue. One of the things that I was striving for in this chapter was to insert my OC in without being too obvious about it. We'll be seeing much more of her later in the story, but I really wanted you to get a few glances of her now. I do feel that I rushed a few bits of this though, but I'm not exactly known for my patience as far as re-writes go. I definitely rushed the introduction of Henry McGonnagal, and the scene with Bill felt way too forced to me, but it got the point across right? If not tell me in the reviews. Thanks for clicking my story. Hope to type to you all again soon. REVIEW!**

**Also just a quick disclaimer since I have a tendency to forget them…I don't own any Harry Potter related indicia, and am not profiting at all from the Harry Potter Franchise…congratulations to me.**


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